Easier
by KeyKnows
Summary: "Do you remember when you said you loved me?" She asks. He does. But he doesn't say so. [NaruSaku. Takes place in that scene in The Last where Sakura gives love advice to Naruto]
1. Chapter 1

_Takes place during this scene www. youtube. com watch?v =03PHi40DbKU_

 _Enjoy!_

* * *

"Do you remember when you said you loved me?"

He stays silent at her words, his gaze tracing the shape of her legs under the thin blanket.

The air is cold around them; with its big, open spaces the cave offers no real refuge of the climate and the burning lamp beside her makeshift bed doesn't warm the environment, it just dyes the dark stone with smooth golden, the illusion of comfort.

Naruto doesn't know why Sakura is saying this, now. Now that there's too much on his head, now that the destiny of the world lies once again on his weary shoulders, and now that the burden of a maiden's heart also seems to rest on his hands and that he has messed up so, so bad.

He came to her for advice: he said what he said to Hinata and he isn't sure what to do with himself or the implications of what he just did.

Why does Sakura say this, he wonders, now that he can't really tell her.

"I wonder…did you only say that because I loved Sasuke and you simply didn't want to lose to him?"

His eyes sting and he blinks a few times to get the feeling away. 'Too tired', he's ready to say if she asks why his eyes are suddenly red, but she isn't even looking at him, too occupied reminiscing of the past.

Naruto listens to her and tries to think, to find it in his own memories if maybe she's right about this as she's always right about so many things, but he can't honestly even grasp the idea of liking her for such a petty reason, the idea that his love for her wasn't honest and sincere, because back in the day seeing her made him smile and his heart do funny things on his chest, and then when they actually became friends he can only remember how happy he was spending time with her and how the idea of something happening to her made him sick.

It still does. Seeing her weak and vulnerable worries him and knowing the reason of her exhaustion is his recklessness makes him want to punch himself in the face.

That…that couldn't have been born of trifling competiveness.

"But is real this times, isn't?" she continues, calm and impassive, like she's explaining something really obvious that doesn't deserve much thought precisely because how clear it is "Hinata is a great person; honestly she's almost too good for you."

He swallows, taking his mind away from the past and remembering why he came to Sakura in the first place.

"Yeah, but…" Naruto starts and stops for a significant second.

But I just said I loved her and it doesn't feel half as real as with you.

He would like to say that, but the words die on his throat, scare of coming out and finding the plane, direct rejection they always found, because Naruto would like to think he's stronger now and that he can withhold that kind of emotional pain but he knows he doesn't, and right now he knows he won't be able to smile it away.

"…but she left me to be with Toneri" he finishes.

If he's quite honest it really did hurt when Hinata went away with that guy, because Hinata has always tried to be there for him and she suddenly disregarding him like that was a shock but, if he continues being quite honest with himself, he was almost glad.

"You're such an idiot. It's obvious she had a reason she couldn't reveal to you" Sakura says in response.

And then she looks at the ceiling with a longing gaze that Naruto knows too well and his eyes suddenly sting again.

"When a girl falls in love and it's true love, her feelings don't change that easily, honestly they can't change. I understand… "Sakura says, quietly, and closes her eyes "…just how she feels."

Naruto looks at the ground. He blinks a few times but the sting in his eyes doesn't go away.

Sakura speaks true, he knows. After all these years and after all these fights and after all the wrongdoings throw her way, Sakura still gets that dreamy look talking about Sasuke. And if what the genjutsu showed him was true, Hinata is the same with him.

Naruto wonders what he did wrong, how bad he had to messed up for Sakura to think that his feelings for her weren't real. He wonders how much more did he need to show her, what exactly did he need to tell her, just what did he need to do…

Sakura has fallen sleep, her chest coming up and down slowly, peacefully, and he looks at her, longingly and love-struck.

Naruto sighs and seeing her sleep, so near yet so far away, makes him hope that taking what he can, that taking all that is ever going to be offer his way, can be enough, that it can heal, or at least, sooth the pain of his heart.

He sees Sakura and hopes that learning to love Hinata will be easier and less painful than loving her.

* * *

 _I just recently watched The Last, i was avoding it bc i'm not a NaruHina fan and bc i've heard that it was just bad like, in general, but my brother wanted to watch so i did to._

 _Well, everyone was right, the movie is bad as a whole, BUT aside from that I saw this scene and I was in utter shock, i'm not even a NaruSaku shipper, at all (SasuNaru until the end of the days) but this scene...idk, it didn't sit right with me how Sakura said that Naruto's love for her wasn't real bc damn, it was people, it fucking was._

 _So I had feels and I wrote this. I was thinking about writing another scene with Sakura's perspective but i'm not sure, if i do write it i'll post it as a second chapter._

 _Anyway, hope you liked it! Thanks for reading! Every comment will be appreaciate!_


	2. Chapter 2

_At the end I did write a second chapter._

 _Hope you like it!_

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" _Why must we love where the lighting strikes and not where we chose?"_

—Theodore Sturgeon

She listens to his short tale and many possible answers come to her and pool in her mouth, waiting for her to make a choice and say one of them.

'Why did you say you love her?' she wants to ask 'Do you really feel like that?', 'Do you realize how she must feel now?', 'Didn't you think of the consequences?'

She listens to his short tale and all these questions beg for an answer, but when she takes air and opens her lips, the inquiry that comes out instead is:

"Do you remember when you say you loved me?" Sakura says.

Naruto makes a sharp, silent intake of breath and she wants to turn her head and look at him, but her gaze is transfixed on the dark, stone celling of the cave.

He surely remembers, she thinks, just as she remembers every time he claim his love for her, both with words and with actions. Maybe she asked him this, now, because she wants him to remember, to think about what he said to Hinata and make him wonder if he did mean it.

How selfish of her, Sakura thinks.

"I wonder…did you only say that because I loved Sasuke and you simply didn't want to lose to him?"

She has thought about that long and hard. Naruto was so childish when he first try to conquer her affections and it seemed, back then, that seeing her fixated on Sasuke just made him try hardest, so she thought maybe that's why he likes me, because I don't like him.

But she was childish too, childish and immature and selfish, ignorant of Naruto's hardships and feelings, deliberately belittling him and his affections. And when she grew up, when she grew older and wiser and a little less selfish,

[but only a little, she thinks bitterly]

it became obvious that his love for her was real, solid and strong. Why did he fall in love with me? She would ask herself, when I was egoistical and arrogant and cruel.

But why does one fall in love, anyway?

"But is real this times, isn't?" Sakura continues, impassive and certain, like she's revealing an universal, plain and unique truth to him "Hinata is a great person; honestly she's almost too good for you."

Even now, she thinks, she can't stop telling him that he's not good enough. But in true, she thinks, maybe Hinata is the only one that could be worthy of Naruto's love. Hinata, she knows, has always love him deeply, unconditionally, unapologetically.

And Naruto, Sakura knows now, deserves someone like that.

"Yeah but…" He starts and make a small but significant pause.

Sakura can almost hear the words he doesn't say, can almost hear another declaration of love dragging out of his heart. And she can almost hear herself say: No. Small and gentle and painful, but still a plain, direct rejection.

Because she knows, now, that she doesn't deserve his love.

"…but she left me to be with Toneri." He finishes.

It's almost a relief, listen him say that. And it's almost like a knife in her heart. But it's okay, she thinks, that he can say this and just this, that he can say this is about Hinata and not about Sakura. It's okay, because she doesn't _deserve_ him.

"You're such an idiot. It's obvious she had a reason she couldn't reveal to you" Sakura says.

She sighs, so quite he doesn't hear her. She sighs and looks at the ceiling with something like melancholy and yearn, but she's not so sure what she longs for, not anymore.

"When a girl falls in love and it's true love, her feelings don't change that easily, honestly they can't change. I understand… "Sakura whispers, with words she didn't know was holding in the cage of her heart, and closes her eyes, hoping that she won't cry "…just how she feels."

Of course she does. She has love Sasuke for so long it would be strange to not hold him dear in her heart at this point of her life, but the years passed and she became a little older, a littler wiser and little less selfish, but just a little and not enough, never enough to be worthy of someone so pure and truth as Naruto.

Just as she loves Sasuke, Sakura loves Naruto. And the rational, selfish part of her tells her the choice is obvious. Go with Naruto, a part of her whispers, go with him that will love you until the world ends, in spite of your mistakes and in spite of your flaws, go with the one that has always seen you and see perfection.

But Naruto, Naruto that has suffered so much, that has been so selfless despite his situation, Naruto that is a good, righteous man, Sakura thinks, knows, can assure, doesn't deserve the half-assed love she can offer him, he doesn't deserved a heart that will always long for another.

So she closes her eyes and lets exhaustion take her, away from the world of the awake and away from her thoughts and away from him.

She has to be selfless now, Sakura thinks, and let him be with someone that can take care of his heart. She owns him that much.

* * *

 _Sakura's character eludes me and I think it must show on this small piece. To be honest I really don't understand why she stays, let's say, loyal to Sasuke after all the shit he does (then again, Naruto suffers of the same flaw but that's a discussion for another day). Its very hard to me to see and understand Sakura in regards to Sasuke._

 _That said, what I think I kinda get about Sakura is that she has always try (especially in the first part of the series) to fulfilled a determinate kind of feminity that isn't true to her. I think that's the reason we have Inner Sakura in the first part, because she was trying to project an image of delicacy and indulgency and keeping inside all her anger and frustrations and stuff she considered not adequate to a woman. In the second part she seems to have reconciled this two parts of her, but that kind of shit stays with you some way or another and I think that, taking that into account, Sakura would think she's not a good woman for Naruto, because a woman, a good one, "has" to be loyal and faithful to just one man and Sakura cannot be that woman. Or something like that, that's my interpretation of the character anyway, you're free to disagree with me._

 _This was hard to write._

 _I hope you liked it! Thanks for reading every comment will be appreciated!_


End file.
